Unlike in his previously forced monologue, Eggman stepped back to allow the girl to take it in. If he could convince her enough to recruit her, this could be one of the greatest successes he had in years. The pictures and videos were selectively chosen to convince her to hear him out. He presented the most appealing 'evidence' upfront to build the basis to exploit her.

Rouge looked at the giant screen that was littered with her older self. While there were some hits and misses that the younger bat saw from the adult thief's looks and attire, she recognized the boots and the breastplate that she destroyed. Her kicking potential was also in practice but exceed her current capabilities. She was in denial trying to accept that she had worked with this guy, but more observations only lead to more confirmations.

"No..." The former thief clutched her hand into a fist. She shot a look at Eggman that startled him enough to flinch but not step back. "You're trying to take over the world! Why would I'd be stupid to help a disaster of a person like you?!"

"What?! You came to me with...!" The doctor started before prying into her sentence. "Wait, what do you mean be disaster."

Rouge pulled no stops in trying to be delicate; she told it as it was. "You're a crazy creep, you probably have the dumb guys around to feel smarter, I get the feeling we're the only two living things here, and...just look at you...You're supposed to be human, or something, but your body is large, your head is small, and your arms and legs are too thin. What are you?"

Eggman was seeing red. He constantly stomped his foot onto the floor as if he was a charging bull. He leered at the girl that threw insults at him with his teeth showing in complete anger. His fingers spread out and flew over Rouge's head."You...YOU...YOUUUU!" Rouge was prepared to backstep him trying to grab her and follow up with a counter. Instead, his hands slapped against his knees and he looked towards the ground. Her words have struck more than one nerve in him as he spoke somewhat defeated. You reintroduced some problems I had to deal with earlier in my life and never had confronted head on."

This image of him was not winning any points for Rouge. It only served to relight him as a pathetic excuse of a evil mastermind. "Sheesh, can't take a joke?"

Eggman's expression of sadness was just a facade though. His anger before was at a boiling point, but he did not set everything up just to lose his temper. He wanted mutual cooperation with the girl, something that can easily be compromised. With a cough to change the subject before he might lose himself, he continued. "If you have a problem with working with a evil scientist, take it up with yourself."

Rouge pointed her finger at Eggman to make her next statement very clear. "But I'm not evil, or even all that bad!"

The evil genius was quick with a rebuttal, "Maybe not, but you were a thief. Take what you wanted without a worry about who you're stealing from. Only looking out for yourself. Just as long as you got your way." Eggman placed both of his hands behind his back and paced back and forth 'recalling' the experience. "Reminds me of a certain woman who came to me for simple goal in mind. She had no problem getting the things precious to her. The issue was keeping them."

"The Chaos Emeralds?" Rouge asked. "Why would I need them if I can't use them?" She followed up with the information from her vision.

"Like you told me everything about yourself. What the other you wanted was to stop the Emeralds from getting separated after every Final Chaos Control. Even with my mental prowess, I could not do that. Instead, I promised a different kind of situation. If the Eggman Empire would be complete and all powerful, there wouldn't be anyone to oppose me. And your reward for your services were all seven of your favorite treasures. As long as at least one stayed away from the other six, you could hold onto them forever."

The explanation was solid, but almost everything about it was a lie. He obviously knew that Rouge initially dug into Project: Shadow's records for G.U.N. and has crippled his operations more than once. But in his studies, he reformed a common saying and mindset. 'My corrupted enemy would be my enemy's worst enemy.'

"But that's still world domination! I would never be stupid to help you rule the world!" The kid's shouted to vent her anger.

The man shook his finger, "Tsk tsk...This is why I don't like working with kids...They either think too much or not at all." Eggman shrugged his shoulders and began to come clean with some truths, as seen by Eggman. "Yes, global rule is something many people should fear. And sure, I would use that power for my own selfish desires. But! There so many good thing to come of it. Think about it, wouldn't having the whole world under one leadership be the same as world peace?"

"You're trying to play tricks on me, and I'm not falling for it." Rouge was not going to let herself to get swayed by the guy who released a giant robot after her before. She was about done with listening to him ramble on and on. There was only one reason why she tolerated listening to him for this long. Seeing as they were getting nowhere, Rouge was in her right mind to start making demands.

The unheard genius frowned and snorted in distaste. "Fine, I don't need an alliance. But I know you need something very important."

The word 'Shoot!' just popped right in her head. "You are going to give me the purple Emerald?!" Her mouth betrayed her as she said too much. The added effort to single out the purple one would show Eggman that he had more cards do deal with. She quickly remembered that only she could have seen the vision, but she still watched her words.

Evil laughter erupted from the mad doctor, lasting for the better half of twenty seconds. After playing with words for the past few minutes, he was finally in the territory he was familiar with. Making offers people can't refuse. "Ohh! That's a laugh. Listen, girl. Once I get an Emerald, it's paws off to everyone else. I know why you need it though. Just so you know, that little fox isn't the only one that can change you back." His fingers interlocked with each other as he set the hook.

This got Rouge's attention. "Like you can." She said not trusting Eggman's words. "I'll admit, you're a smart guy, but that's no way you can do it. It was an accident, and he couldn't really figure it out. What chance do you have, Eggy?"

The doctor's had another laughing fit, this time, more obnoxious. "My intellect is second to none, let alone a single boy's. Wouldn't it be fitting to call fixing your little problem 'child's play'? Aw, it works on more than one level."

The bat was getting extremely annoyed with the prolong meeting, but saw her advantage. This evil-doer clearly wanted her help in something, willing to pull out all the stops. She found her own leverage in this negotiation. "Sorry, but you lost your chance a long time ago." She began to move for one of the doors, trying to make it look convincing. "I'm sick of this place. I can use this door to leave, right?"

Eggman slid in with absurd speed to stop her in her tracks. "What?! Weren't you trying to grow up? I thought you would take up such an offer as quickly as you could!"

"Sorry, but you're nothing but empty promises. At least I can trust Foxboy to keep his word." Rouge shrugged. If he needed her help with whatever he was going to do, he would need to up his ante. "I just need one Emerald to reverse this mess. We got six more chances, and I'm feeling lucky."

Unbeknownst to her, Eggman lost the chance to pick up a second Emerald. Also as it was Tails who directly got involved, Rouge was the last piece of the puzzle he needed. 'If she can make it back to the little twerp...' He thought in fear.

"And besides, I can stay young, you know. There's no real hurry." She had to steer this closer to the thing that can save her. "If you really want my help, then I can take a payment of a shiny power jewel. Besides, aren't gemstones just money in rock form, right? But since I'm not the only picky one here."

With quick reworking of his current plan, Eggman pitched a new idea, even if he would hate part of it. "Fine then..."

Rouge ears perked up as the doctor started to concede.

"If you do one job of me," Eggman got in real close to add more emphasis, "one little job, then I'll give you two options. One, you can return to that woman there." He pointed at the screen that had the expert jewel thief on it. "The resourceful lady with the ability to snag to her will's content. Or, option two...the Emerald."

Rouge smiled as the Eggman made the Emerald one of these options. "Funny, I thought you said it was 'paws off' to everyone else."

Anger swirled within Eggman. He was not going to lose to this brat. This conversation is still well under his control. "Yes, but now you don't have a luxury that you would have had of you listened to me. I'll grant you either option, but..." At the snap of his fingers, a section of the metal wall started to lean away from the two in the room. The wall soon served as a ramp that revealed what was outside.

It was faint, but there were clouds brushing pass them at eye level. The only ground that can be seen was plated in metal sheets. Hundreds or thousands of turrets and cannons reached out as far as the eye can see, and they could only see in that one direction. Corridors were etched all over the place to create a weird maze that housed hundreds of thousands of Eggman's robotic army.

"After you get your prize, you're going to get kicked out! Then you'll have to deal with being in the very heart of the Eggmada, new flagship of the restored EggFleet! And to think, it's still in Stage One of development." Eggman examined his work in progress, pleased with what he already accomplished.

"You're crazy! Who the heck would agree to such a stupid deal?!" Rouge yelled in surprise. "So what you're saying is that once I help you, you're going to try to get rid of me?!"

"This wouldn't be a problem if you just played along!" He snapped back at her. "Or, still...I suppose there is an option three."

"What? You'll throw in a pat on the back for what a good job I've done?!"

Eggman shook his head, "No, option three would be to go now, empty-handed."

"You're forcing me to work for you?! What was the point of trying to talk it out?" She responded.

"Do we need to over this again? Your behavior stopped you from getting the best part in all of this. Since you insisted on the Emerald, I had to take something away to give it to you. You want it? You can get it. But first, I suggested you think about your options first. The one I was willing to do for you would be your safest bet. All that skill that you lost would come back in an instant. All the know-how to deal with matters like this. Your best chance for survival. If you get the Emerald instead, then it would be no different then if you do it now."

Rouge fully understood the circumstances she was in. "But if I do what you want, then I would have to come back to this trap in order to get either one of those?! That's low!"

"I like to call it job security. Trust me, you'll grew into it." Remembering Rouge's line of work, this was a true statement on his part. "Now I don't think there's much more to discuss here. What will it be?"

Somethings that happened tho Rouge after the accident ended in disaster, but things have took a turn for the worst. No matter what she wanted to do, it was impossible for her to avoid crossing the Eggmada. What's more is that if she flaked on the job Eggman would have her go on, she'd need to cross it anyways to get the Emerald. Finally having remembered that one comment 'it's still in Stage One of development', it would only get harder to storm in. Seeing her choices, she only had one choice. "What do you need me to do?"

Eggman wickedly smiled and chuckled as the bat submitted. "Seeing things my way, huh? And to think, I really could have given you the Emeralds if you would wait until after my global domination. Oh well. Now, you see...This is a job only you can do."

SEGA is the owner of the characters that I use in this story, excluding original characters from previous chapters. Under what I believe is fair use, this story as a whole is a parody and no copyright infringement is intended.

Can I be honest for a second.

...I...guess so.

Rouge is a thief and really likes gems, right?

Yeah?

I just find it weird that she doesn't wear any jewelry.

...Mmph...?

Now I promote myself by asking you to comment, favorite, follow and...you know by now. Just know that I really appreciate it.